October 13th, 2008
Categorized under: Registry, Tricks

Real Tricks -2

note:-these tricks are collected over net.well i don’t guarantee you that all tricks will work.use the tricks at your own risk.

Change any system icon

NOTE: Before using this tweak know that it is potentially dangerous to your system… ALWAYS make backups!!!! Also NOTE: I am not responsible for any damage to your computer USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! I’ve used Icon Packager for the longest time to change all the icons in my Windows XP system. Until I decided that wasn’t enough. But there is a way to change 95% of the icons that you see in your windows system. The key to understanding this process is knowing that many files installed in windows has embedded icons. We are simply going to replace the old ones with new ones. :)

1. Get a copy of Microangelo. at http://www.microangelo.us/

2. While Microangelo is downloading you need to make 2 backups of any files that you will be replacing. for this example we will use shell32.dll This file is located at c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll. To view these files you need to turn off ‘Hide protected operating system files’ and ‘Show hidden files and folders’ in the view tab of the folder options under tools in my computer. One of these backups is for editing purposes and the other is pure backup.

3. Once Microangelo is downloaded and installed, open librarian. librarian is an application that can open up exe’s and just about any file with embedded icons.

4. Once librarian is opened, open the first backup of that shell32.dll file. and Voilà!! Tons of icons, actually most of the icons in the entire system. :)

5. Here comes the fun part. simply right click on an icon that you want to change click on replace and navigate to your new icon.

6. Once you’ve changed all the icons that you want, Save the file. Now you have a new and improved shell32 file. Now comes the hard part.

7. First off, XP is very clever in creating a backup of all its important system files so you need to replace these backups. Navigate and copy the new shell32.dll file to these two locations: c:\Windows\System32\dllcache and if you have SP1 installed c:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386

8. Now that you have the backup files taken care o

Change Browser Toolbar Background

This tweak customizes the appearance of the Internet Explorer Toolbar

XP Professional

1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Windows Setting > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User Interface
3. Double click on Browser Toolbar Customization
4. Click on Customize Toolbar Background Bitmap
5. Browse for the new Background

XP Home Edition

1. Click Start > Run, type: regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
3. Right click on an empty spot and create a new string value
4. Name it BackBitmapIE5
5. Doubleclick on BackBitmapIE5 and type in the path of your toolbar bitmap
6. Click OK and close regedit
(always backup before making any changes in the registry)

Note: Because you can customize your browser toolbar there isn’t a specific size which
you need to make this tweak work. Play around with the size until you get it right.

The Width of your toolbar with be the width of your resolution. 1024 will be your width
if your resolution is 1024×768.

Change Log On Screen Colors

Microsoft includes three default “shell styles” with the Windows XP Luna theme: Homestead, Metallic, and NormalColor.

You can see these three styles in the “Welcome to Windows” and “Log On to Windows” screens during logon.

To change the style, open regedit and go to: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager
Change the “ColorName” key value to either “Homestead” or “Metallic”. “Homestead” will show the title bars in an olive color. “Metallic” will show them in a silver color.

Log off or reboot to see the change.

Note: this will only work on the original Ctrl+Alt+Del log on screen, not the new Welcome screen.

Change Orginal Desktop Wallpaper

This is more of a fun tweak than it is useful.

Go to run, type regedit press ok.
when that comes up go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Desktop
Now find the orginalwallpaper, right click and select modify.
In the text box type the path to the file you want to be your orginal desktop wallpaper.

There ya go!

Create SendTo menu items

Open Explorer and type the following into the address bar:

X:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo (Where X: is your System Drive letter and “username” is your Username)

Add a shortcut to the file or program of your choice.

Creating a Keyboard Shortcut

1. Right-click a shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu, and then click Properties .

2. On the Shortcut tab, click in the Shortcut Key box.

3. Press the key you want to use. Windows will add Ctrl+Alt to it. So if you choose U the combination will be Ctrl+Alt+U.
You can also choose one of the function keys you don’t use otherwise, F7 as example. Just one button to click then.

4. Click OK .

Delete/Repair the Windows Media Player Library

If you have moved your music around on your hard drives, Windows Media Player continues to add new entries into it’s library instead of modifying the existing ones. This means that you will now have multiple entries for the same song, half of which will not work now because you have moved the files to their new location. To delete the current library and build a new one, do the following:

1. Close Windows Media Player, wait about 3 seconds for the database to close.

2. Using “My Computer”, navigate to the following folder:
F (or whatever drive is appropriate for you):\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index

3. Delete the “wmplibrary….db” file here. This is not your actual music, only the database which Windows Media Player uses as a listing.

4. Start Windows Media Player

5. Hit “F3″ and enter the location where you have moved your music to. If it is on muliple drives, check “All Drives”. Let it finish.

You’re Done!
All the old listings will now be gone, and you will only have the new accurate ones.

Display the Windows version on your deskt

It is possible to display the version of Windows in the lower right corner of your desktop. This requires a modification in the Windows Registry.

Note:
You cannot decide what text you want to appear; it’s predefined, based on the version of Windows you are running. For example, the text for Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 will be along the lines of:

Windows XP Professional
Build 2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158 (Service Pack 2)

Procedure:

1) Click the Start button, click Run, type regedit and click OK

2) On the left-hand side, navigate to (and highlight)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

3) On the right-hand side, locate PaintDesktopVersion and double-click it

4) In the pop-up window, change the data to 1 and click OK

Note:
0 = Hide Windows version from desktop
1 = Show Windows version on desktop

5) Close the Windows Registry Editor as well as your other programs and reboot (or log off and log back in).

Easier way to kill microsoft tick sound

The annoying “tick” sound is microsoft’s default sound for “start navigation” which can be disabled through control panel–>sounds

Faster Application Access

Have you ever wanted to have your program shortcuts withing a clicks reach without crowding the desktop? And do you have to many apps to pin them all to the start menu? If so, then this might be a solution for you aswell.

1) Create a new folder anywhere you like and name it “Progz”, “Gamez” or “Music” according to your will and pleasure.

2) Place shortcuts of the stuff you need into this folder.

3) Right-click on the windows tastbar and select “toolbars” and “New toolbar”. Then you simply refer to your “Progz” folder.

And there you have it… all your applications within a clicks reach…. and a clean desktop aswell. I have my menues minimized, so I only see the names of the categories or folders, and then locked the taskbar, making room for the active applications to be shown.

Adding new items to the toolbar is done simply by copying or creating shortcuts into the original folder, then your menu updates itself.

This can also be a good way of organizing applications into different categories… you just make seperate toolbars.

Real tricks-1
Real tricks-2
Real tricks-3
Real tricks-4

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